Saturday, December 6, 2014

MURDER(S) BY COP?

Rumain Brisbon, 34, was shot twice in the chest after a chase and scuffle ended on the floor of a Phoenix apartment where two children were in a back bedroom. Witness accounts of what transpired varied, but what an officer took to be a pistol in Brisbon's pocket was actually a bottle of oxycodone pills. Police have yet to name the 30-year-old white officer, who fired off two shots that killed Rumain Brisbon, a 34-year-old black man, during an altercation Tuesday night during an investigation into a drug deal, police said.

The police-involved shooting gives “the impression it’s open season for killing black men,” Ann Hart, the chairwoman of the African American Police Advisory Board for South Phoenix, told KPNX-TV.

"We need to look into that," Hart told the NBC affiliate. "We need to take a deeper dive into why police officers are feeling compelled to shoot and kill as opposed to apprehend and detain, arrest and jail."